Guest post by Seth Bartee. In the 2011 Journal of American History roundtable on American conservatism, the participating historians seemed to agree that the final word on conservatism was yet to be written. There was the feeling that historians had indeed made great strides towards researching a movement once considered too ridiculous to take seriously. (1)  Still, Wilfred McClay’s reaction to Kim Phillips-Fein’s lead article was more skeptical about the newfound awareness. The former Merle Curti award winner—despite renewed attentiveness to conservatism—remained suspicious as to when conservative intellectuals would garner genuine respect from liberal academics instead of being treated as Read more